NASA's Top Man In The Bay Area Makes Bold Prediction
MOUNTAIN VIEW (KCBS) - Think you have a long commute now? Imagine moving to another planet and relying on your smart phone to keep you connected to your earthly counterparts. It could happen, according to the head of the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, who speculated that human beings will colonize other worlds by the end of the century.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
Not long ago, a man on the moon seemed like science fiction. So, Dr. Pete Worden's prediction may not be as far fetched as it initially sounds.
"Sometime this century, people will leave this planet forever. Permanently. We'll live on other worlds," declared Worden, the astronomer and retired Air Force general who directs NASA Ames in Mountain View.
He expressed confidence that, by the year 2100, the human race would expand beyond planet Earth. He said exponential leaps in technology supported his theory.
"It's sort of amazing what technology can do, that, you know, you think about something that you can do today and you said well, twenty years ago, if you could do it at all it would be hugely expensive. And now you've got it in your pocket with a smart phone."
"There's more computing power in that iPhone, actually, than anything we've sent into space so far. We have a program at NASA Ames to actually take these smart phones and put them into space and show that you can control a satellite with them."
"Sometime later this century, we'll become a multi-planet species," he declared. "That's the next step and it's an unlimited future. And it requires hard work but we're going to do it."
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